


Produce Guy

by IhaveAbadfeelingAboutThis



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, First Kiss, First Meetings, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, One Shot, virgin!Gellert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 13:16:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20724818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IhaveAbadfeelingAboutThis/pseuds/IhaveAbadfeelingAboutThis
Summary: Albus and Gellert meet in the produce section - kind of.





	Produce Guy

**Author's Note:**

> Just because Gellert is dead sexy does not mean he necessarily has a lot of experience. Or any...
> 
> Set in a college town in the southeastern U.S.
> 
> [This one shot stands on its own, but it was later developed into an explicit multi-chapter fic: [Everything Has Changed](%E2%80%9C)]

Gellert did not believe for a minute that anyone actually met in the produce section. He worked in the produce section, and he had never seen it. Mostly, people studiously ignored one another, just as they did in any other public space. Once or twice during his shift, two people who already knew each other would nod at one another, or stop to engage in small talk. But pick-up central? Who had come up with that one?

And so it was a surprise when he noticed the guy over by the tomatoes. He had reddish brown hair, and was wearing a forest green t-shirt which looked great on him and - Gellert should totally not be staring at a customer. But he couldn't help himself. There was something about this guy. Gellert watched him walk over to the lettuces, and reach for a bunch of spinach just as the misters kicked in. Generally shoppers hated that. They would scowl or recoil. Not this guy. He smiled the biggest smile, as if he could not have had better luck than to have been there at that exact moment. Then he noticed Gellert looking at him, and one corner of his mouth twisted, as if he were holding in a laugh. “Beautiful weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

Gellert’s eyes got big. Usually he had a reply for everything. Banter with the moms was a specialty. But this time – nothing. He couldn’t say a word. The guy’s smile faded a bit, as if he were unsure if he had been too friendly. And then he waved, and said, “See ya!”

It felt like the best and worst moment of Gellert’s life at the same time.

A month later, Aunt Bathilda was nagging him. “Get outside!” she had insisted. “It might be one of the last beautiful days before October!” It might be one of the last _tolerable_ days before October. Why did she have to live so far south? But she did, and so he did, and so she was right – he may as well ‘enjoy the fresh air’ or whatever.

So now Gellert was walking on the trail that looped around the arboretum, listening to his ‘songs I want to learn to play’ playlist. It was pretty gratifying – he had already mastered more of them than he had realized. His first thought was, ‘I need to add some new songs to the list.’ His second thought was, ‘and I need to work out some variations on the riffs I already know.’  
And his third thought? ‘Holy fuck – hot guy at twelve o’clock.’

There was a pack of maybe a dozen college guys running towards him, and there, near the front, chattering away to a friend like he wasn’t exerting himself at all, was the guy from the produce section. And he didn’t have a shirt on. Which was entirely unfair. He was shiny with sweat, wiry – not stupidly muscular, but definitely fit. Broad shoulders and – oh no – he had totally just caught Gellert checking him out. He met Gellert’s eyes with a smirk and a wink – and then, with a stampede of feet on the sandy path, he was gone.

Gellert wasn’t sure if he hoped they came back around or not. Had that guy actually liked that Gellert was staring at him? Or was he just fucking with him? Gellert had had enough of straight guys thinking it was funny to fuck with him. If that hadn’t been such a problem at school, he would not be living with Aunt Bathilda now. Gellert shook off these thoughts, returning to the problem of produce guy. Thank God the semester was almost over – he wouldn’t be seeing him around for almost three months. Maybe he’d forget about Gellert by then. 

He had made it through two more songs when someone tapped him on his shoulder. Gellert hopped a bit in surprise – with his earbuds in, he hadn’t heard anyone come up behind him. He turned around – produce guy? He took out his earbuds.  
“Hey.”  
“Hey – sorry I startled you.”  
“It’s – ok.”  
“Can I walk with you a bit?”  
“Are you done running then?”  
“What? Oh, yeah. We just do one lap in the off season. Last one together this year. So. Can I? Walk with you?”  
“Sure, whatever.”

The guy looked a little hurt, so Gellert quickly added, “I’d like the company. I don’t know many people here, really.”  
Now he looked surprised. “Oh! You’re – not a student?”  
Shit.  
“No, not exactly. I’m – just finishing up my senior year, but I’m being homeschooled by my Aunt Bathilda.”  
“No way. Your aunt is Professor Bagshot? I haven’t taken a class with her yet, but I read her biography of Emma Goldman – it was wild! I can’t believe – wow!”

Gellert smiled. “Yeah, Aunt Bathilda’s pretty cool. My name’s Gellert.”  
“I’m Albus. Nice to meet you! But – we’re still not walking, and my muscles are freezing up. So I’m going to need to stretch before we get started.”  
Gellert was definitely not going to be able to handle watching Albus stretch.  
Gellert blushed. “Um – ok?”

Albus pushed one foot against the edge of a nearby bench. He looked over his shoulder at Gellert and grinned. “And if you want to stare at me while I do it, I won’t mind. I’ve been told I have a nice ass.”  
“And legs,” Gellert added, before he could stop himself.  
“Oh yeah?” asked Albus, “Well, I suppose my body is making up for whatever is lacking in my personality, then.”  
“No – I mean – I didn’t...”  
“Relax, Gellert. I’m joking.”  
Oh. Gellert’s face fell. Of course he was. 

“Right, so. I’ll see you around then.” Or not.  
Albus trotted after him. “Whoa. Hey –“ He put his hand on Gellert’s shoulder, and Gellert shrugged it off.  
“Don’t touch me.”  
Albus ran around in front of Gellert, but Gellert didn’t stop moving, so Albus started trotting backwards.  
“What was it? What did I do?”  
“You sure are working hard for a joke.”

“I didn’t mean – shit, Gellert. The joke was the bit about my personality. Not about – umm – liking you watching – I mean – fuck, this is hard. Why is this so hard? I’m not – God! Will you stand still please?”  
Gellert rolled his eyes, came to a halt, crossed his arms against his chest, and looked defiantly at Albus.  
“Listen, I ran back more than a half mile to see you. I hope that tells you something."  
Gellert didn't say anything, but he did lower his arms and stuff his hands in his pockets. He looked at Albus, considering him. Was it even possible that Albus was actually attracted to him? That he was attracted to men at all? 

Albus sighed. "Ok, maybe not, then. Listen. I’ve been thinking about you since I saw you that time in the grocery store. You were beautiful - you are beautiful - and there's something about your energy, about the way you stand, and the way you move and - and I felt like an idiot to be thinking so much about you, when you were clearly not interested.  
"But then I saw you on the trail today, and it looked like you might be interested after all, and I had to know if I was imagining it. And then you said that about my legs, and I got – nervous I guess, and made that joke. And maybe it wasn’t a very good one –“  
“Or maybe I’m a hyper-sensitive prick,” Gellert conceded.  
Albus laughed. “Maybe. Let’s – keep walking together and find out?”

By the end of their walk, Gellert had learned that Albus was a scholarship student studying electrical engineering – he wanted to work on solar panel design. He was a freshman from up north, he was on the rowing team, and he was staying over the summer to do an internship, because his parents had died and he had no home to return to.  
Albus seemed very sure of his attraction to Gellert. Which was hard for Gellert to understand, since no one had been interested in him before. 

“That seems completely impossible to me. Not even girls?"  
"Sure, maybe girls. I guess? Irrelevant. Anyway, definitely no guys."  
Albus shook his head. "Either you are oblivious, or you have never met a gay man before.”  
“I don’t know about oblivious,” Gellert looked down, and tried to figure out what exactly to say.  
“But never met a gay person? That’s pretty accurate. I’m from a small farming town. It was – really different from here. Anyway. I’m not sure I want to talk about it too much. Just – things happened, and I got suspended from school junior year, and I – didn’t go back. Which got me expelled, ironically. Like, ‘Please, no – don’t throw me in the brier patch!’ My parents were over it, so they sent me to Aunt Bathilda, and she said I was too smart to drop out of high school, and I said I wasn’t going back. So – homeschooling. But I have heard that college is – different, so. We’ll see.”

“So, no one else was gay, or, more likely, some folks were but were not saying.”  
“Or they all left, like I did.”  
“Sure, that’s possible.” Albus rubbed the back of his neck. “God – no wonder you jumped to the conclusion that I was fucking with you – that’s happened to you before?”  
Worse. SO much worse.  
“Kind of.”

Albus nodded thoughtfully. They were back at the start of the loop, at the path that led back to the main campus.  
“Do you have a few more minutes?”  
“Sure – I’m not working today. How about you, though?”  
“Oh, I told my roommate that I was probably going to miss the study session this morning, so, yeah. Walk back with me? There was a bench about 300 yards back.”

Albus and Gellert sat on the bench, and Albus took Gellert’s hand. It felt to Gellert like electricity was shooting from his hand straight to his chest. He felt warmer all over. Was it possible to die of handholding?  
“Is – this ok?” asked Albus.  
Fuck yes. More than.  
“Definitely.”

Albus looked down at their hands and was quiet. Gellert decided he didn’t mind as long as Albus didn’t let go.  
“I was – I wasn’t expecting – I like you a lot, Gellert. Could we – could I see you again?”  
Obviously.  
“You want to –“

“I want a lot of things. I want – listen, what I want now is to not do anything that is going to make you uncomfortable, and I want you to be – sure of everything we – God, I’m so inarticulate around you!”  
Gellert smiled. “I think you are perfect.” Perfect? God, did that make him sound like a moron? “Keep going.”

“Ok – I’m – I don’t want to make you uncomfortable...”  
“Too late,” said Gellert, laughing. “But I like it, so –“  
“Right. It’s obvious, given what you said, that you don’t have any experience...” Gellert tensed up, and Albus must have noticed, because he corrected, “or at least, no positive experiences...”  
“No, the first one was accurate – no experience at all – nothing, umm, like that happened back home – it was more along the lines of physical violence.”

“Shit, Gellert. I’m so sorry.”  
“I don’t know. It’s not as bad as what you seem to have been thinking might have happened to me.”  
“No – it still sucks, not to feel safe.”  
Gellert shrugged.  
“Do you want to talk more about that?” Albus asked, quietly.  
Please, God, no.  
“Not really.”  
“Ok.” 

Albus waited a bit longer. And Gellert waited too. He was determined to outwait Albus, but he didn’t manage it.  
“Does it bother you? That I don’t have any – umm – experience?”  
Albus’ face tilted up and his eyes met Gellert’s.  
“No! Gellert, that’s not at all what I was trying to say. It’s just – if I'm going to be your first boyfriend -"  
"Are you asking me out, Albus?"  
"I'm - sort of - I mean, yes, definitely yes. But I'm also wanting you to think about it, because I don't want you to say yes only because I’m the first person to show any interest. I don’t want you to be sorry about – anything.”  
Gellert smiled broadly. “You mean when I inevitably sleep with you?”

Albus laughed. “You’re much better at this than me.”  
“I can think of several things that you are probably better at than me. Like this, for instance.”  
Gellert leaned forward and kissed Albus. He pulled away almost instantly, startled. Had he really just done that? In public?!  
Albus laid a hand on Gellert’s face. “Are you ok?”  
No - totally in a panic, honestly.  
“Yeah – but – is it ok that we, um – here?”  
“Just kissing? On campus? Yeah, definitely ok. We’re safe here. Or, safer than most anywhere else, at least.”  
“Ok, then,” said Gellert, and he leaned forward and kissed Albus again, just pressing his lips to his, tentatively. Albus groaned. 

“You’re sure? I mean, I don’t want to take advantage –“  
“Take advantage, I beg of you.”

Albus drew closer to Gellert, put his arms around him, and kissed him, deepening it this time. Albus’ tongue was in his mouth, and Albus’ hands were in his hair... this was amazing! And now he was starting to get hard, which was – going to be mortifying just as soon as he could bring himself to care about anything but Albus’ mouth and hands. And anyway, maybe no one would notice?  
Gellert’s hand started drifting down Albus’ back...

“Wait,” gasped Albus, “We are about ready to cross the line of what we can do out in the open – or what I’m comfortable with at least. Let’s um – no ass grabbing on the trail, please.”  
Gellert laughed. He felt almost dizzy.  
“Is it, is it always like this?”  
“No – definitely not,” said Albus. Then he corrected himself, “But maybe it will always be like this with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> So - I was researching what could get someone expelled from high school in the U.S. these days, and it varies state by state, naturally, but - weirdly, one of the reasons in some states was truancy? Like, isn't that counterintuitive? 
> 
> Also - I know that not all small towns are like that. (I am not casting aspersions on your home town, I promise!) But I lived in a small farming town for awhile myself (or - the long-time residents would call it a farming town - but these days, half the folks there work in either the nearby factory or the slightly farther away prison), and this is 100% accurate as far as that particular town went.


End file.
